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Tales from the crypt #10: Body & Soul added to the mix

I’m currently at 3 games played with my Body & Soul tier list, and I like it. As far as list pairings go, Goreshade 3 // Denny2 is set in stone.

The main thing to look at when you play Cryx these days is all the anti-Cryx lists out there. As always “Cryx – different” and “Cryx harder” will be key in your list building.

If you just field a plain old Cryx list you will just get shot off the table and that’s that.

This is why this list pairing looks good for me. Goreshade3 with a Kraken and soul hunters deviates from the all small based models everywhere strategy and the Kraken won’t be removed by the same sea of pow 10 shots as the infantry spam would. Then there’s also Occultation adding stealth to the mix and the Blackbanes adding incorporeal.

The Denny list is the Body and Soul tier up till 4. If you have no or limited upkeep removal this list is bad news. It has the infantry spam, adding in lots of cheap models. (who should die so the mc thralls can grow in number)

Each of these lists can be countered with ease, however having a list that answers both is hard and having two lists where each is the direct counter is no small feat either.

If someone builds an anti Cryx list and it is a super infantry removal list, it’ll have a bad time vs. 3shade. Sure they may have an armor cracking list as their 2nd list, but does that list have an answer to stealth and incorporeal…

These elements greatly contribute to the whole list chicken aspect.

Now that’s just the pre game part of this list pairing. During the game the focus lies on what win conditions are possible and how available they are.

Assassination:

3Shade: This guy has such an amazing treat range. Add in an arc node and you pretty much can’t hide. This is also a bit of a trap when first playing the caster, as you really need to set things up the right way. When everything is set up just right it’s a truly beautiful work of art. Making a warcaster / warlock stationary, stealing the focus/fury left on the model and then shooting it with the Kraken or just charging is with the kraken works just fine to.

The option to remove fury using Siphon Bolt makes him a solid anti hordes drop for sure.

eDenny: What can I say it’s eDenny… On a serious note, assassination is an option, and you can certainly keep it on the table as an option so the other player knows he needs to watch where he moves his caster. But in essence this caster/ list is more oriented towards attrition and scenario play.

Aside from that she does have really nice options for assassination. Charging / walking up to a caster, teleporting them right in the charge path of Deathjack/ nightmare or a sea of mctralls, is always a nice option is just one example.

Attrition:

3Shade: The recursion rate within this list can be immense, this is however very match-up dependant. Anything that stops soul gathering for example makes the Soul Hunters less effective. The number of magic weapons also determines if Blackbane can commit or not. In an ideal scenario where the blackbanes can roam free and multiply and the soul hunters can do their hit’n’run things can go well on an absurd level.

Facing a list that has no answer to incorporeal and stealth and contains living models and makes it easy to remove models… yea that’s not really a combination that will dominate the meta. So realistically you’ll be able to make use of one or more factors but not all.

Mockery makes sure you can bring back bodies each turn. Ofc you need to make sure you don’t lose an entire unit. If the other player casts a spell in 3Shade’s control area you get a spell for free so even more Mockery.

The Soul hunters can go in and light cav out, adding the hit and run aspect to the list.

Having Rengrave along can make the blackbanes more accurate and it’s an extra shot as well.

eDenny: The drudges have tough so there’s a good chance that they stay around a bit longer, if they don’t corpse tokens are collected and extra mc thralls will come along the turn after. Being able to recycle the entire army and add more mctralls is a really nice recursion mechanic.

There are 2 variants at this point, 2 units of mctralls and 2 units of drudges (which is my choice atm) or 1 unit of mctralls and 3 units of drudges.

The reason I go with option 1 is simple, if the recursion works as intended and you don’t lose a ton of mctralls each turn, you are bound to end up with a ball of models that is simply too big to work, having 2 units solves this and also makes it harder to remove a unit completely early on and be rid of all recursion.

SO recursion is present in the list and it works out great, but that’s not all. The important pieces (overlords and surgeons) can sac to either drudges or mctralls, making them harder to remove and hopefully keeping them alive until they can shine.

Then there’s the offensive part of the attrition, sprays, sprays and more sprays, combined with the occasional hell mouth. The overlords each have an 8″ spray, the sirens also have an 8″ spray (with corrosion as a bonus), Deathjack can cast venom (more than once if he gets enough focus), and then there’s Denny herself. The overlords can target any model on the board for better placement of the spray templates (no line of sight required), and with Marked for death it’s possible to make a model/ unit targetable without los as well.

Because of the tier bonus, it is easy to achieve placement of the key upkeeps on enemy models (provided upkeep removal such as purification isn’t available)

The feat can help removing a large portion of the opposing army, which can be a powerful attrition tool. It is better used with other goals in mind, but the added attrition value is a great bonus either way.

Scenario:

3Shade: It’s certainly possible to treat the scenario and to force the opposing players hand in doing so. 3Shade has a huge treat and the list can be super fast when needed, meaning a reposition for scenario isn’t all that hard.

I never feel like I’m going to go for the scenario when I field the caster, there’s too many options going on with regards to attrition and setting up the assassination.

Posing a threat on both scenario and assassination while staying ahead in attrition is ofc the perfect place to be, but at my level of experience that is rather hard to attain.

Huge treat range do have a large “Gotcha” factor where an opponent might not see your caster getting to a flag to dominate or may think your models won’t ever reach their objective / clear the zone.

I think scenario is the less likely win condition for 3Shade unless the opposing player allows you to take up a strong scenario position.

A win with 5 scenario points is always better than a win with 0 scenario points. This simply because if 2 players have won the same amount of games and their strength of schedule is equal, then the next tie breaker is on scenario points.

In short, take what points you can while hunting for a good assassination run.

eDenny: Well, they call her the queen of scenario play, so this is what she does best. Her feat adds most of the value as it pretty much costs the opposing player a turn. If the opposing player has more experience against eDenny then setting up the feat and keeping her safe are pretty complicated.

The basic setup is to wait for the opposing army to close in, then move up with Denny, (pref incorp so not every gun on the field is able to shoot her), then pop feat. Key things to remember are that the feat doesn’t prevent models from aiming, and place effects are also still allowed.

Keeping Denny safe from attacks during her feat is the most important element in the games you play with her. Often when you play your feat just right, the opposing player will have no choice other than assassination in order to prevent a loss. Denny by herself is fragile and can’t stand much of a breeze. Even when she’s on full camp her armor isn’t high enough to withstand serious beatings.

If you manage to get enough points during the feat turn and can keep scoring the turn after (opponent can’t assassinate and is unable to contest because models are under the effects of the feat), then you win on scenario.

Examples would be, destroy objective (1point), dominate enemy zone (2 points), then dominate the turn after and go to 5.

This is exactly what makes Denny a scenario powerhouse. However as I stated before, you are not the only one who knows how she operates and more experienced players will see this coming a mile away. There are lists that don’t have an answer and there are lists that were built to have the perfect answer. The latter make it pretty hard on a Denny player with limited experience.

That being said even when things look pretty grim Denny can still pull a rabbit or 2 out of her hat and save the day, she has an amazing set of spells to help with that.

Conclusion: Both casters lend themselves to go for either win condition, which provided an amount of freedom. In general I feel 3Shade is better vs. hordes, where Denny takes care of certain Warmachine lists. The approach what Cryx can do in a different way, different enough to make the opponent contemplate if he should take the dedicated anti-Cryx list or not.

They have overlap and unique elements so that an answer isn’t always easy to find and even if the answer is there I may still pick the other list, potentially making that answer useless.

I hope I can manage to get more games before the tourney at the end of the month, and ofc that I can keep using this pairing for a while without the need to mix things up.